Thunderbird donation-driven revenue increased 21% in 2021
The Thunderbird team released the 2021 financial report for the Thunderbird project last month. Revenue increased 21% in 2021 to $2.796 million compared to the $2.3 million the project earned in 2020.
Thunderbird is part of the MZLA Technologies Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. The entire project receives its funding almost entirely from donations.
Donations increased from $700K in 2017 to $2.7M in 2021. In 2021 alone, donations increased by about $500K to the new all-time high.
Improved engagement with donors and an updated What’s New page with “improved donation appeal” were the main drivers of increased donations for the year. The team plans to increase engagement with the entire community in the future. There is already an increase in activity on social networking sites like Twitter.
Non-gift income represents less than one percent of total income. Thunderbird gets paid when users sign up with email providers Gandi and Mailfence. The team is open to exploring new revenue opportunities, as long as they align with the project’s mission and values.
When it comes to spending, most of it is spent as pay for employees. A total of 78.1% is expenditure on personnel. Professional services, including human resources, tax services, and “dealings with other Mozilla entities,” represent 10.5% of spending. 5.5% is spent on general and administrative services, and 4.7% on donation transaction fees.
The Thunderbird project spent a total of $1.984 million in 2021, increasing the money in the bank to $3.616 million.
The Thunderbird project has a total of 18 employees. The team wants to hire several engineers without spending more money than it brings in.
The Thunderbird team has big plans for 2022 and beyond. The next major release is Thunderbird 102, which includes major feature enhancements and new features, such as an improved import module, a new address book, Matrix support, and more.
The developers are working on the first mobile app for the open source email client alongside that. Plans are underway to release Thunderbird Mobile for Android. A release date for the first preview version has not been mentioned, but many expect it to be released later in 2022.
closing words
The financial perspective is good for the whole project. Donation revenue increased in 2021 by 21% over 2020. As a result, nearly $800,000 was added to the project account. The year 2022 is important for the project. The next major release is only a few months away, and the planned release of Android will address the limitation to running Thunderbird on desktop systems. An iOS version is also planned.
Thunderbird users who wish to donate to the project can do so here.
Now you: do you use Thunderbird? Are you waiting for the release of version 102 and the first version of Android? (via Soren Hentzschel)
advertising
